The present invention relates to a wire handling apparatus for motor coils, which, at specified positions, holds or connects the start and the finish lead wires of coils inserted into the stator core of an electric motor.
In the prior art, coils are wound by a coil winding device and dropped in between the blades of a coil inserter upper tool. The coils are then inserted into slots of the stator core by a coil insertion device. Workers manually connect the start and the finish lead wires of the coils to an appointed position on the stator core or an exclusive lead wire handling fixture is employed. However, this conventional method requires excessive time and results in a high production cost. Furthermore, the location and configuration of the lead wires of wound coils are not usually aligned after they are inserted in the stator slots, and workers sometimes have trouble finding them hidden inside the stator core. Therefore, other problems arise such as decreased productivity with manual work and no opportunity to automate processes after coil insertion.
The present invention has been developed in view of the above problems, and it is therefore an object of the invention to automate the handling of lead wires subsequent to the insertion of coils.